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About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.

The Angels brought in three players for a tryout Sunday. Each was an athlete with experience at the highest level of professional sports. As of Monday morning, they were still waiting for a call back.

Cam Fowler, Viktor Fasth and Nick Bonino (pictured above, left to right) weren’t exactly waiting. The three Anaheim Ducks were getting ready for tonight’s game against the Phoenix Coyotes in Glendale. Sunday was a rare off-day in between road games in the same city, so the Ducks took advantage of their invitation to join their Anaheim brethren for a day at the ballpark.

“It was very cool for them to allow us to come in,” Fowler said. “It’s always cool for one professional athlete to see another, how they go about their business.”

The first game of the NHL preseason is a haphazard ritual, its beauty comparable to gargling the morning breath out of one’s mouth at the crack of dawn, its timing and coordination no better than of a pack of hyenas attempting to divide a carcass of raw meat.

There is no need here to romanticize the hockey-viewing experience of 12,544 announced spectators at Honda Center — it was pretty ugly — but there were a few takeaways.

First, the quick and dirty game synopsis:

Igor Bobkov played roughly the first 30 minutes and John Gibson played the last 30. It was the first NHL game action of any sort for either goalie (Bobkov was at last year’s NHL camp and did not appear in an exhibition game), but the seven goals couldn’t totally be pinned on them. “We’ve got to work on defensive-zone coverage. That’s what we have to work on, obviously,” head coach Randy Carlyle said.

Sean Zimmerman, Kyle Palmieri, Andrew Cogliano and Nate Guenin scored goals for the Ducks, who never led in the game. The offensive effort wasn’t much to blink at, either.

“We just seemed to be slapping the puck around in too many situations,” Carlyle said. “From our standpoint it’s an evaluation game.”

Players not appearing in tonight’s game will be working at various locations at Honda Center during tonight’s game against the Phoenix Coyotes and again tomorrow against the San Jose Sharks. Players and times are subject to change:

Andrew Gordon’s first-period goal accounted for all the offense in the Ducks’ 6-1 loss to the Sharks on Wednesday night. Gordon, the former Washington Capitals prospect who signed a two-year contract in the off-season, elicited a positive reaction from Randy Carlyle after an otherwise dreary game for the Ducks.

“I thought that Gordon made an impression. I thought that he was, again, a player that showed the determination and the fire that he showed right from the start of camp to impress some people,” the coach said.

Kurtis Foster will have a procedure later
today at UCI Medical Center to remove a piece of wire from his left
thigh, the Ducks announced Monday, and the defenseman is expected to miss 2-4 weeks. Foster hasn’t been taking part in drills since training camp opened Saturday.

A team spokesperson said the wire was placed in Foster’s left leg during surgery that took place
to repair a fracture in March
2008. The wire was causing inflammation/irritation, and therefore will
be removed.

A two to four week timetable projects to Oct. 3 at the earliest and Oct. 17 at the latest. The Ducks play a preseason game in Helsinki on Oct. 4 and do not play in North America again until Oct. 14, a home game against San Jose. Foster’s availability for the Europe trip seems to be in jeopardy, which would open a door for the other defensemen bidding for an opening-day roster spot.

Teemu Selanne said he wanted to decide whether or not to extend his playing career by September 16. Looks like he beat his own deadline by a full day.

The 41-year-old right wing signed a one-year, $4 million contract Thursday that will keep the Ducks’ leading scorer in uniform for another year. The annual summer ritual of will-he-retire-or-re-sign was getting old, and there was a sense of finality this time when Selanne spoke to reporters on a national conference call.

“I look at it as my last year,” Selanne said. “Hopefully it’s going to be a good
one.”

Full story to come in tomorrow’s editions. Some more interesting details:

According to ESPN.com, the NHL has enacted a social media policy that will prohibit most posts by players, coaches, trainers and management on game days.

Beginning at 11 a.m. on the day of a game, and ending after post-game media obligations, the aforementioned NHL employees won’t be allowed to post on social media websites. Nor can they use another person to post messages to their social media accounts.

The NHL is relatively late in restricting social media use by its personnel. Two years ago, the NFL instituted a policy similar in scope — blacking out social media statements less than 90 minutes before kickoff up until post-game media obligations commence. The NBA’s initial policy, also enacted in 2009, was almost identical.

Enacted in May, Major League Baseball’s policy (which you can download here) seems more focused on restricting the content of social media dispatches, rather than their time of day.

Today I penned a story for Hockey Primetime that attempted to put the makeshift Ruslan Salei memorial outside Honda Center in a global context. You can read that here. After the jump, you’ll find a bunch of photos I snapped this afternoon. Warning: My photography skills are, for lack of a better word, rusty.